The Promptly Written Monthly Theme for October

It’s time to write!

An Empty Frame — Image by mk.s on Unsplash

Representation matters. We say it often, but do we stop to ask: what does it actually look like in practice?

As a mixed-race woman raising mixed children, I’ve felt the sharp absence of faces like ours in stories — from the fairy tales of my own childhood to the books my kids now devour. And when representation does arrive, it can be breathtaking. A single description — “her skin as black as midnight, her lips like crushed damsons” — can land like a revelation, proof that beauty exists beyond the narrow frames we’ve been taught to imagine.

Stories shape us. They tell us who we are allowed to be, what roles we can step into, and which dreams feel possible. But stories also shape how others see us — and what they assume we are not.

As writers, this is where the responsibility begins. When we draw characters, when we choose images, when we decide whose voices get to speak — we are reinforcing, or reshaping, the world. That doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, or that we can’t make mistakes. But it does mean asking questions of ourselves. Who is missing? Who is flattened into stereotype? Who shines in full, vivid humanity?

And then there’s the bigger question: can we, or should we, represent identities and experiences not our own? Some…